This is another Cornell Woolrich story adapted by Robert L. Richards. The fine performance by Susan Peters with the backdrop of the tragedy that was still unfolding in her life makes the broadcast all the more interesting… no matter how improbable the plot would be today.
Blogger Christine Miller notes the source of the story https://www.escape-suspense.com/2011/02/suspense-they-call-me-patrice.html :
They Call Me Patrice was adapted from the novellette by Cornell Woolrich eight months after it was first published in Today's Woman magazine (April 1946). Woolrich later reworked this same story into his classic novel, I Married a Dead Man, which was published in 1948 under his pen name, William Irish.
Peter’s character, Helen, meets happy newlyweds on her way back to San Francisco from New York. She had just been divorced there after a short and unhappy marriage to a rather unsavory man. The couple is headed to San Francisco so the wife, Patrice, can meet the in-laws for the very first time. They are chatting it up and the newlywed woman, Patrice, and Helen play a bit of a game where she lets Helen try on her wedding ring. Then… the train derails, injuring many of the passengers. Helen wakes up in the hospital and realizes they have misidentified her as the newlywed. The new husband, and “Helen” are identified as killed in the accident. When confronted with the opportunity of starting a new life with a clean slate… Helen decides to become “Patrice.”
What follows is a common plotline for the time, someone becoming someone else, until there is a person from the past who suddenly appears. In this case, it’s Helen’s sinister ex-husband who has detected the identity ruse, tracks her down and blackmails her.
In current times, genetic forensics and the constant flow of digital pictures and video calls on smartphones, and posts on sites like Facebook and Instagram would make the underpinnings of the story difficult to establish. As listeners we know to set it aside and understand these plotlines in the context of their times. The lack of current-day tools and media actually make the stories more interesting. There was a time when people knew of each other in family relationships but had never seen them or their picture. Those situations are much more unlikely today.
The story’s ending is shocking with Helen firing a pistol and killing her ex-husband. Oh, sorry, spoiler alert. That ending must have been surprising in light the tragedy that Peters suffered just 23 months before, in an accidental gun discharge of her own gun on a hunting trip with family. She was paralyzed from the waist down and was in process of recovery and rebuilding her career in the months that followed. She was not even 24 at the time of the accident, and she was not even 26 at the time of this broadcast. Her career was on a strong rise at the time of the accident.
As an indicator of her acting skills, this item from Radio Life 1946-12-29 about her Suspense appearance is an eye-opener:
...“Susie” had been unintentionally tossed a foul ball. Somehow, days in advance of the broadcast, the actress had been sent the wrong script, and the mistake wasn’t discovered until she arrived at Columbia Square just a few hours before air time.
She had to forget what she had been studying the past forty-eight hours, and prepare for a strenuous airing of a script she had never seen before!
The idea that the end of this very Suspense episode includes a murder by gun seems eerie in light of Peters’ experiences. Was it intended to be “shocking” to the audience? Did Peters only learn about that scene when she arrived at the studio? Were there any objections or concerns expressed by her or her agent? Was there any trepidation among the production and writing staff? What script was she sent by mistake? So very many questions...
Peters was finding new roles and MGM kept her on their payroll for a while as her health and career challenges unfolded. She would leave MGM, performed in other films and theatrical productions, and eventually found her way onto television in a soap opera, Miss Susan on NBC. She played a lawyer in a wheelchair, confined to it by a car accident. The 1951 series, with a woman in the lead, as a successful lawyer, in a wheelchair might have gotten more public attention as a groundbreaking concept years later. The show began in March 1951 but did not last long, unfortunately, ending that December. A summary of it and comments about two episodes at the Library of Congress are at this blog https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2023/02/discovering-tvs-miss-susan/ There are no episodes or clips of the series online.
Peters died at age 31. It was claimed that she had stopped taking care of herself as her physical challenges and events in her personal life overwhelmed her. An overview about her life and career are at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Peters
There are two surviving network recordings. The east coast recording is the better of the two and has the announcement to stay tuned for The FBI in Peace and War.
At the end of the episode, there is an announcement of upcoming stars Olivia de Havilland, Lilli Palmer, and Mark Stevens. de Havilland did not make the appearance (as noted previously; it would have been her second on the series). Palmer appears in the final episode of 1946, and Stevens in the first of 1947.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461212
THE CAST
SUSAN PETERS (Helen, alias Patrice), Bill Johnstone (Bill Hazzard), Wally Maher (Steven Georgesson), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Hazzard), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Stevens / Winthrop), John McIntire (Policeman), unknown (Nurse)
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